For the fourth year in a row I attended Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, TN. This annual outdoor music festival attracts between 70 and 90,000 music lovers from all over the country. This year Bonnaroo headliners included Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Phish, Merle Haggard, Booker T, Nine Inch Nails and the legendary Al Green. The beauty of Bonnaroo is that there is so much music that there is something for everyone to love. The kids (teens to twenties) were into Wilco, The Beastie Boys, Snoop Dog, The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s , MGMT and Public Enemy.

Timing your arrival to the festival to ensure a prime location for camping is tricky. In the past we’ve taken back roads, arriving early in the morning on Wednesday prior to the start of the festival on Thursday hoping to get inside the gate at the earliest possible opportunity. We packed up our expansion van on Wednesday afternoon and after a few setbacks including forgetting the tickets we were well on our way to Manchester that evening. We drove through the gates about 1:30 in the morning, parked the van and unloaded my son Ben’s and his friend Elizabeth’s camping gear and sent them on their way to the tent camping only area closer to the main gate. The kids were excited to learn that their camping area was literally an open field; they snagged a spot close to the fence, a short distance from the Bonnaroo arch leading to the main stage. My husband Alan and I stayed up until 4 AM getting set up. We were awakened bright and early to the sounds of more RV campers moving in and rocking out. The weather was a bit threatening that morning and a heavy downpour hit in the early afternoon. The skies cleared and we set out to listen to some music later that night. Thursday’s program was devoted to rap, rock and jam bands. We drifted over to The Other Tent and listened to black rappers The Knux for a bit. One of their lyrics commanded the audience to “raise your motherfucking hands in the air,” prompting my former school teacher friend Alison to turn to me and say, “They shouldn’t talk like that.” Needless to say this line was repeated a few times over the course of the weekend.

On Friday Bonnaroo kicked it into high gear and we were ready. We began the day with the Jamaican born reggae band The Itals, followed by The Rev. Al Green. It was sunny and 98 degrees and I’m here to tell you that when Al Green passionately sang “Amazing Grace” I literally got goose bumps and a chill. Of course he sang a slew of his amazing hits including Tired of Being Alone and Let’s Get Married Today, all the while throwing red roses to his fans, while wearing a three piece suit and red tie. Two male dancers and killer back-up singers rounded out the all too short set. We took a short break to freshen up and returned to briefly check out The Beastie Boys, 15 mins. of listening to these white Jewish boys screaming out rap lyrics to what sounded like the same guitar lick was enough for us. We drifted over to the Which Stage and were drawn into David Byrne’s show. The former lead singer of The Talking Heads looked elegant wearing a white suit and sporting a shock of thick white hair. Byrne offered up a tightly choreographed set with lyrically lush songs. He tossed in a couple of old hits including the Heads version of Al Green’s Take Me To The River. A stop at the first Phish show of the festival capped off our evening.

Saturday dawned hot and sunny. We were enjoying breakfast with our friends Alison and Wiley when we learned that Jimmy Buffett would be making a surprise appearance with The Coral Reefer Band at noon so we packed it up and headed to the Which Stage to check it out. Buffett was fit and sexy at 50 something and dished up a hit laden show for all the island music lovers and parrot heads in the crowd. While Heartless Bastards took the stage, Alan and I walked over to That Tent to listen to New Orleans singer-song writer Allen Toussaint. I had a chance to see Toussaint and Elvis Costello at Bonnaroo 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Toussaint’s solo set was bluesy and soulful, with lots of Cajun spice. I loved hearing his version of a song he wrote Sneakin Sally Through the Alley. Booker T and the Drive By Truckers were up next and it was a chance to hear a legend in blues and funk. Booker T is primarily known for his hits with The MG’s including “Green Onions” and “Time is Tight.” Booker T and The MG’s served as the house band for Stax-Volt Records in the ‘60’s, backing big stars like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam and Dave.

After a refreshing shower and some food we walked back to The What Stage for the main event-Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. One of the coolest things about the totally laidback Bonnaroo Festival is making friends with strangers in the crowds at the music venues. We chatted with some hard core Springsteen fans, taking pictures and comparing notes on the musical acts we had already seen at Bonnaroo. The coolest thing about this show was it was the chance to see the original members of the E Street Band on stage with The Boss. Clarence Clemons on sax, Nils Lofgren on guitar, Patty Scialfa singing back up and Little Stevie Van Zandt on bass guitar-that’s a butt load of talent. Bruce and company ran through their hits and took requests from the audience. Requests were communicated to the bands through home-made signs that Springsteen collected by wading into the crowd on several occasions. The pure joy you could feel flowing back from the lucky fans in the front section was heavenly. I love to see a huge star like Springsteen interact with their fans and clearly revel in the joy of performing. We capped off the evening listening to Ben Harper and his new band Relentless 7. I’ll be honest I wasn’t wild about the harder rock edge to Relentless 7 but still enjoyed Ben Harper.

Sunday was the final day of Bonnaroo and we were a little sad that it was almost over. At the recommendation of the lovely and talented Alison we began the day listening to Robert Earl Keen. He was a sweet surprise and I especially loved his fans. Country music legend Merle Haggard took the stage next followed by young singer songwriter Neko Case. Producer T. Bone Burnett has compared Case to the late Patsy Cline in terms of vocal range and performance. She’s a unique performer and clearly building a solid and rapid fan base.

The final performance of Phish ended our Bonnaroo experience and the second time was the charm for this jam band. We were drawn in by their laid back lyrics and soaring guitar riffs.

My special memories of Bonnaroo include joining the Fun Team formed by our next door camping neighbors, sharing tools and food with our neighbors in the RV section, all those tattoos and the guy with the salad plate sized gauges in his ears and the fun costumes. Bonnaroo has reawakened my love for live music, bonded me even more firmly with my husband and makes my heart sing to know that next year we will gather again to drink in the joy that is Bonnaroo!